Blood Red Roses
by Ryo Hoshi
Summary: (AU, WWII-esque fantasy.) Amelia and young Val find a burial mound in the English countryside and awaken an ancient evil. [Complete for now]
1. Cold Haily Rainy Night, Jo

The reasons for this story are not actually known, nor is how long this one will go. It's mostly up to the people who choose to review... I won't bother with more if nobody seems to particularly want it. 

§ Assorted disclaimers: This is an AU, and rated mostly for violence. Slayers doesn't belong to me, it is owned by Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I am making no profit off of this story.

* * *

**Blood Red Roses  
by Ryo Hoshi **

Cold Haily Rainy Night _Jo_

Filia bustled about the small cottage's kitchen. Here, in the English countryside, the war seemed very far away. Filia could almost pretend that she was married to the house's owner already, and that her husband would be home any minute to ask her, his soft brown eyes twinkling, what was for dinner. But little details all over the house reminded her that she wasn't welcome there, like the still-broken kitchen window, where somebody had thrown a rock through. The lone ring she wore, an engagement ring, was also a permanent reminder that her fiancé had enlisted in the army almost as soon as the war had started, and was posted away before they could get married. 

She pulled the bread out of the oven and sighed, reminded by it that she hadn't been able to get any meat when she did the week's grocery shopping that morning. She suspected that they had simply not wanted to sell 'the German Bitch' meat, since, though they had told her they didn't have any, she could see that they had some in the back that they simply hadn't put on display yet. 

Filia hated the war. She had not really been old enough to quite understand what had been going on when Hitler took over Germany, yet she could understand quite well that her English father had wanted the entire family to leave Germany while her German mother had wanted to stay. Neither won, and her father ended up taking her with him to England late one nightmarish night, leaving her mother behind. 

She hadn't liked England at first. At least her father had always insisted that she be able to speak English and she sounded like a well-educated London girl most of the time. Still, it hadn't been Germany, and she wasn't with her childhood friends. Then she had met Arthur. They had first met her sixteenth birthday, her first in England. He was a handsome young man who had accidentally run into her. 

He ran into her daily for the next week before he admitted that he had been running into her on purpose, and asked if she would let him treat her to dinner. Over the dinner, they had learned about each other. He had not been bothered at all that she had been born and had spent most of her life in Germany. Instead, he had quoted some German poetry with a slight but obvious English accent. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that this charming young man was a college student, planning on becoming a country doctor. 

The war had started a few months after he had proposed to her on her seventeenth birthday. Arrangements were made, and she had found herself takeing care of the cottage he had inherited from his parents, while her father and her fiancé were busy with the war. 

During the year since then, she had found herself slowly forgetting what her fiancé looked like. To try to distract herself from that, she had taken in two of the children being sent away from the cities. She hadn't gone to the village the day they arrived to take in any of the children. When the train arrived and none of the villagers were willing to take Val because he was from Germany, she couldn't refuse. Amelia had come with the six-year-old Jewish orphan. The sixteen-year-old girl was the daughter of a banker and no relation to Val at all, but she had insisted on making sure that Val got a home before she would accept one herself. By the time Filia decided to take Val in the boy was unwilling to be parted from Amelia. 

Amelia and Val's company and kindness, Filia had discovered, had made the villagers' hostility towards her easier to stand. Unlike the villagers, neither seemed to blame her for the war. Their innate ability to make her feel better, however, didn't effect her when they were absent, as they were right now. Val had gotten very restless during the recent near-ceaseless rains. There was no way Filia could deny him and Amelia the chance to go outside once the rains stopped, no matter how muddy it might be out there. 

Filia glanced out of the broken kitchen window, and frowned at the storm clouds which had been hanging over them all day, filling the sky and looking threatening. It looked like they were soon going to stop merely threatening to rain. Filia hoped that Amelia would notice, and bring herself and Val in before it started raining.

* * *

Amelia looked up at the clouds, worried. "Val, please come out of there! Miss Copt will be worried about us if we're not home before it starts raining." Amelia didn't want to add that if Filia found out where Val was currently, she would probably be very angry. 

Amelia seemed to recall that, before the public school her father had sent her to had closed for the duration, her history teacher had said that some of the mounds in England were actually ancient graves. Amelia also remembered all the stories one of her classmates had told about curses on ancient tombs that would cause the deaths of anybody who dared disturb them. That all of those tales had been about Egyptian tombs didn't help Amelia get rid of her bad feeling about Val going into the mound, nor did they help her try to convince herself to go in after him. 

"But Amy!" Val called from inside, "I've only been in here for a little while! Let me at least get a look around with my torch!" 

Amelia sighed. She should have known that Val would have his torch with him; Val never went anywhere without it. "Don't take long, I..." 

"I won't!" he interrupted.

* * *

Val pulled his torch out from his pocket as he sat in the pitch-black chamber inside the mound. Val had his back against the opening of the tunnel that he had crawled through to reach the chamber, to make sure that he could be certain of finding it again if his torch wouldn't turn on. He thumbed its switch, and the chamber was dimly lit by his torch. 

Val's torch wasn't bright enough to illuminate the opposite wall of the room, only dimly lighting the area closest to him. The area it did light, though, had what looked rather like children had been drawing in black and brownish red all over, even on the floor and ceiling. Aside from the drawings, however, what of the chamber that Val could see was undecorated. 

What caught Val's interest was not the chamber itself, however. Near where he was sitting, outlined twice over in black, with scribbles in the brownish red inbetween the two black lines, lay a skeleton. It was a near-perfect human skeleton, every single bone exactly where it would be if it was still surrounded by flesh... The only thing wrong was the skull. Like all the other bones, it lay in exactly the same place it would have if it had been a living person, and that living person had a wolf's head. 

Curious, Val carefully put his torch down on the floor, its light pointing up towards the ceiling, and walked over to where the wolf's skull lay. He picked the skull up, and examined it. He didn't quite like the rest of the skeleton, but he had handled animal bones before and was comfortable with them. 

Amelia's voice, worried, came from outside of where the tunnel's entrance had been recently uncovered by the rains. "Val, it's starting to drip... _Please_ come out!" 

Val sighed and tucked the wolf skull inside his jumper. "I'm coming out now, Amy!" Amelia was nice, and one of the kindest people he had met since his father had sent him to England, but in Val's opinion she worried too much. He didn't really expect her _not_ to worry too much, though; he considered that one of the normal flaws of girls. It was in Amelia's favor that she had few of the others. 

Still, he didn't want Miss Copt to get angry with him. He crawled back out, forgetting his torch in his hurry and his delight at having found a wolf skull. He already could see, in his mind, Miss Copt's reaction to him bringing it home!

* * *

"Get that..." Filia paused for a few seconds, mentally changing 'dirty' to something that _did_ apply to the wolf's skull, "disgusting thing _**out**_ of my house and take it back to where you found it!" 

Val blinked, eyes big. He had thought that Miss Copt would be proud of his find. Wolf skulls were wonderful, not _disgusting_! It seemed to Val that here, at least, Miss Copt was very much a girl. Girls usually were weird about things like skulls. He looked outside, and saw that it was still raining lightly. "I'll return it, Miss Filia. Can I please wait until it's stopped raining, though?" Val didn't feel too eager to go back out in the cold rain. 

Filia sighed, feeling her heart soften. "I suppose it can stay until then..." She took a deep breath and added, "**But** as soon as it's stopped raining it _has_ to go!" 

Val smiled happily. "Thank you, Miss Copt!" He happily headed towards the narrow staircase to the cottage's attic, which was serving as his room. At the bottom of the stairs, he reached for his torch to light his way until he was able to turn his lamp on and froze. "I left my torch behind!" he wailed. 

Filia and Amelia looked at each other, worried. His torch was one of the few things Val had when he had arrived there. They had learned early on that without it he was afraid of the dark. He normally was very good at keeping track of it, and had only lost it once before. 

"I'll go back and get it, Miss Copt!" Amelia slightly hoped that Filia would ask her not to go get Val's torch, even though she knew it was not really good of her to think that. She was, after all, probably responsible for Val having forgotten to grab his torch on his way out... 

"Take your mackintosh, Amelia," Filia said. "I'll sit with Val in the kitchen and we'll drink tea..." 

Amelia nodded, thankful that she wasn't going to be asked to take the wolf's skull back while she was at it. She went to get her yellow mackintosh on. If she had known that was what Val had under his jumper, she'd have insisted he put it back before they went home. She was uneasy enough about that place as it was, and knowing that Val had taken something so morbid out of there made her even more nervous about it. She didn't think she could bear having to take that thing with her... 

"I'll be back soon!" Amelia called to the kitchen as she left the house. She hoped nothing would happen while she was gone.

* * *

The first thing Amelia saw when she had finished carefully crawling through the entrance tunnel was that Val's flashlight was still on. She was thrilled by that, since she hadn't been looking forward to having to look in the dark for it. The next thing she saw, however, was the skeleton. She froze as she realized where Val had taken his wolf skull from by the outlines of a wolf's head where the human's should have been. 

She nervously picked Val's torch up and felt something cold and wet flow over her hand. Amelia looked down, unconsciously turning the torch's beam to the floor, and saw a thin stream of mud flow through the tunnel and towards the skeleton. The mud covered the skeleton, forming consecutive layers of flesh in what looked like something Amelia had once seen in a horror movie that she had snuck out to see but even more frightening. 

Amelia was pressed tightly against the wall as the last touches formed on the thing. Its head shifted from a malformed lump into a hairy malformed lump and finally, reluctantly, became a wolf's head and neck with dull black fur. A dense patch of matching hair formed between the thing's legs. 

The wolf-headed man sat up and grinned, tongue lolling. His glowing yellow eyes glittered at her, and Amelia tried to back away from him only to find that she had already backed herself up against the wall. She looked around wildly, and quickly saw that the tunnel's opening was only a meter or so away from her. 

Amelia looked at the wolf-headed man. He seemed to be looking away from her and the tunnel. She bit her lip and, not daring to stand up, scampered towards the tunnel, and _froze_. The wolf-headed man had moved faster than she could see and was now crouching between her and the tunnel, still grinning. 

Amelia whimpered, and moved away from it. It moved a step forwards, almost leaning over her. She leapt backwards with a scream, and felt bones and flesh underneath her. Val's torch, which she had dropped, rolled to a stop, its beam shining on Amelia. 

Amelia looked down. She was sprawled over what might be a very, very large dog, except it had a large human head attached to its neck and it currently was skinless; Amelia could see the mud flowing towards it, forming skin. 

It lifted its head and, as its head turned towards her, she could see the muscles in its neck move. Amelia screamed again as she saw its skinless human face and lidless red eyes, and moved away from it a little. Skin started flowing over it, and its lips parted in a grin, revealing pointy metallic fangs. "Wolf-head, leave the maiden to me..." it said in an almost-growl. "You need to get your skull back." 

The wolf-headed man whimpered, and looked at Amelia. 

"I know it's been a long time since you had a maiden. But you're not going to be able to do too much without your skull. I'm amazed you've been able to get your head in its proper shape and to hold it that way without it," the dog-creature said. While it was speaking, pale skin finished covering its body, dead black fur covered its body and long, matching hair formed on its scalp. 

The wolf-headed man whined, but turned to leave through the tunnel. He bumped his head on the top of the entrance of the tunnel, denting his head. He paused while the dent unmade itself and then lowered himself so he'd not damage his head any more on his way out. 

"So, maiden..." the dog-creature said, grinning and moving between Amelia and the tunnel's entrance. "It looks like it's just you and me now..."

* * *

"Isn't English weather _dreadful_?" a short young woman with long red hair who was in an American army officer's uniform opined to her three companions. Two of them looked at her nervously, but the one standing to her left didn't seem to find anything strange with what she had just said. 

"But Miss Inverse, it's so charming! Why, when it's not raining..." This was said by the last one, who also wore the uniform of a member of the American army, though his lacked any insignia to indicate his own rank. His purple hair longer than regulations would like, making him look more like he was playing a role than was an actual soldier. 

"I'm an officer, not a civilian. Don't address me like a civilian, Xelloss!" 'Miss' Inverse snapped. 

"You're no fun...and we're all officers here." He flashed a grin, shrugging. 

"Will you two cut it out! We've got a mission!" This was from the shorter of the two who hadn't spoken before. He wore the uniform of a British army officer, and though his hair was longer than proper, and glistened, he looked every inch a proper officer. 

"This is going to be easy, Zel!" the fourth and tallest one said. He wore his own British uniform comfortably, his yellow hair hanging down in a long braid behind him. "If what the villagers said is right, all we'll have to do is hide the entrance again!" 

There was a short and deep silence, and then the one Xelloss had called 'Miss' Inverse spoke. "Gourry, please don't jinx us again." 

"Okay, Lina!" 

"Jellyfish..." 

"Oh dear, it looks like we're already jinxed!" Xelloss said cheerfully. Three heads turned to see what he was pointing at: a wolf-headed man, walking in the general direction of the village. 

"_**Damn!**_" Lina said. "Somebody's already disturbed it!"

* * *

§ This was semi-inspired by stories I faintly remember reading and stories I've only heard of so far; some of the second group shouldn't be too hard to guess. (I'll be picking one of them up as part of my post-NekoCon budget...) 

This was not intended to be an accurate portrayal in any particular way of England during World War II. This is only based on some things that happened during that time. This is _not_ intended to be taken as some kind of historical novel. The setting, the village and its surroundings, are also not intended to portray anywhere in our England, of any era. 

Oh, and of course any resembalance to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. 

§ I know that Amelia normally addresses people with honorifics, but having her using either English or Japanese honorifics when using everybody's name would not have really worked in this story. As a result, she uses English honorifics on a case-by-case basis in this story, since it would just not really work to not have her using honorifics towards anybody. 

I had not originally planned on having Amelia in this story at all when I started plotting this out, less than an hour before starting to write this. However, as I was writing the paragraph where Val was first mentioned Amelia turned up suddenly in this story and refused to be edited out. I've no idea why, really. 

§ On a related note, none of the characters who are in the military in this story seem to want to actually address the others properly. Each seems to have some reason or other to not use proper military form when addressing each other. About the only thing I can determine is that Xelloss has the lowest rank of the group, Zelgadiss has a rank above Xelloss's but below Lina and Gourry's ranks, and Lina has the highest rank of them all. Oh, and I pity anybody who gets stuck trying to get them to do more than sometimes address each other 'properly' in public, because they seem to be quite adamant on the whole on not doing so. 

§ I know that many Americans have, as of late, been gaining familiarity with British English, but I am providing explanations of some of the British English that I use in this story here anyway. 'Some Americans' does not cover all people who might read English. 

English public schools are not the same as American public schools; they're closer to American private schools. Amelia probably went to a girls' academy for girls who were hoped to marry well-educated men and would need to be capable of intelligent and well-educated conversation. 

'Torch' is what the English call what is known in America as a 'flashlight.' A 'mackintosh' is known in America as a 'raincoat.' 

The hill in this story is based somewhat on burial mounds that can be found in England, but I'd put this one as having actually been built at the very end of the building of such things... It also was much better hidden than many of them, since the people who made it didn't want anybody to accidentally free what was inside. (Given how well such things usually work, it has probably had to be resealed several times over already by the time of this story.) 

§ I hope that those who read this far enjoyed this story...


	2. Cold Haily Rainy Night, Ge

§ This chapter has been reposted due to part of a paragraph being 'eaten' by the upload process.

§ The first chapter has been revised. This was finished a very long time ago, but, along with the first chapter, got stuck in revision. (It did _not_ help that I kept having to transcribe the corrections by hand, which is time-consuming & it was often easier to simply retype the story completely instead of locating wherever a tweak had been made & altering the text to reflect the alterations.) I'm really sorry about this.

To the majority of the reviewers: thank you, here, finally, is more & I'm glad so many of you are worried for Amelia. To Suki Sakura, who asked questions: I'm not saying what will happen to Amelia -- read on for that; guess which parings, I'm not telling (yet); Lina and the others know about the barrow because records were kept and alarms set; and I've no idea 'who is it,' what's this it you're talking about? 

§ Assorted disclaimers: This is an AU, and rated mostly for violence. Slayers doesn't belong to me, it is owned by Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I am making no profit off of this story.

* * *

**Blood Red Roses  
by Ryo Hoshi **

Cold Haily Rainy Night _Ge_

Filia poured another cup of herbal tea for Val, and then poured the dregs into her own cup. With a small, worried sigh, she put the kettle on again. Amelia was taking too long, in Filia's opinion. 

It seemed that Amelia was taking too long in Val's opinion, too. Filia had managed to calm him quickly after Amelia had left, with both the idea of having his torch back soon and mint tea. Just having his torch was usually enough to keep him from panicking in the dark; the idea that he would soon have his torch again was enough to calm him while there was still some light. 

However, since Amelia had left, the sky had gotten dark and the rain had started to fall even harder. Filia had served herself and Val dinner, leaving some for Amelia when she finally got back, and sat down in the kitchen with Val to wait. 

Thunder had been rumbling in the distance for a while when Filia finally decided to try telephoning someone to report Amelia's disappearance, even though she knew that some people would be convinced that she was responsible for it. She stood up, and walked towards where the phone sat, and picked up the receiver. 

As she held it to her ear, only to discover that the line was dead, lighting flashed, illuminating the world outside her kitchen window. 

Standing outside her window, staring in, was a naked man with a wolf's head. His yellow eyes stared at her, his mouth hanging open and his tongue hanging out. 

As lighting's light faded, Filia screamed.

* * *

"Looks like several people have been in here, Zel," Gourry said, sitting back on his heels beside the tunnel's entrance. 

"I _know_ that, Gourry," Zelgadiss said with a sigh. "What we need to know is if the _other_ one's free yet... Can you tell?" 

Gourry shrugged. "If it's free, it's still in there... I only see human tracks...and before you ask, Zel, I can't tell how many and what directions. All this rain's not helpful..." 

"It's still in there. So all _we_ are to do is make sure nobody goes in there and it doesn't leave there, if it's already free." 

Gourry nodded, with a sigh. "Yes, that's our orders... I'm just not sure that nobody's in there..." 

"That's none of our business; we're not supposed to go in except to put them back in. Besides, the wolf-headed one wouldn't have left if there had been anybody still alive in there..." 

Zelgadiss squatted down beside the entrance to the tunnel, opposite Gourry. "...right?" 

"You know more than I do about _this_," Gourry replied. 

Zelgadiss sighed softly, and hoped he was right...and that he wasn't really hearing what sounded like a woman screaming inside there.

* * *

"Val...?" Filia said, trying to figure out exactly where would be the safest place for Val to go that she knew he _would_ go if she told him to. Upstairs, in the attic, would probably be _the_ safest spot, but Val still didn't have his torch... The basement might also be safe, but Filia hadn't even found out how to get into it yet, and it too would be dark anyway. None of the ground floor rooms of the cottage were really safe, either, though they did have electric lights. 

Filia sighed. "Stay behind me." Val nodded and clung to Filia's skirt, provoking another sigh. Having him clinging to her skirt would not make it any easier to protect him... _Of course, it's not like I can do much **to** protect him_, Filia thought as she grabbed the broom. 

There was a pounding at the door to the kitchen garden, just beside her kitchen window. Filia automatically reached for it, and paused for a few seconds. _Why do I think it's that wolf-headed monster...? If it wanted in, it would have broken in through the window, right? It's probably just Amelia..._, she told herself. 

She opened the door, and stared. It really _was_ the wolf-headed man. He _grinned_ and moved towards her, reaching for her, and Filia stepped back, biting her tongue gently so she could keep from screaming. Val hid behind her skirt, barely peaking past her as the wolf-headed man continued to move towards Filia, backing her closer and closer to the kitchen table. 

Filia gasped as she felt the edge of the table gently touch her back, and the wolf-headed man yipped for joy, lunging for her. Filia leaped out of his way, Val escaping under the table. However, the wolf-headed man ignored them in favor of grabbing the wolf skull on the table. He held it for a few moments above his head, aligning the skull's profile with his own, and then pulled it down and into his head. 

His flesh at first warped, almost like clay, into the skull, its jaw hanging down, the white bone of the joints visible. After a few long seconds where Filia and Val could see its flesh settling into the inside of the skull, its jaw pulled up into place and its eyes popped into the sockets. Then, suddenly, flesh rushed up from its neck, covering the skull and it looked like it had before. 

The wolf-headed man turned his head slowly towards Filia, who was pressed up against the wall opposite the kitchen window, frozen. He seemed to smile, and then, in a blur, leapt towards Filia. Filia closed her eyes, certain that nothing was going to save her from whatever the wolf-headed man was going to do to her. She prayed that Val would escape while it was occupied with her. Suddenly she heard the sound of glass shattering and wood breaking. 

"Now now... It's not very nice to attack pretty maidens," a smooth male voice said. Filia opened her eyes, and saw a tall, uniformed man with long purple hair crouched in front of her, his left arm in the wolf-headed man's jaws.

* * *

Zelgadiss opened his eyes with a sigh. He couldn't ignore the sounds from within the hill anymore. His keen hearing had picked up on everything, as the woman's cries for help devolved into pleading with a man, who only laughed and ridiculed her. Then, only a few seconds ago, he had heard her yelp, and nothing... 

In response to a muttered "Lighting" a small ball of light formed in his upheld palm, and he tossed it gently into the tunnel's opening. 

"Zel?" Gourry said, curious. "What are you planning to do...?" 

"I thought I heard somebody in there," Zelgadiss said, his mind mostly on the tunnel. He considered telling Gourry the details. Zelgadiss decided that, since the entrance appeared barely big enough for him to wiggle in on his belly, he shouldn't tell the larger man. Gourry would only insist on following him in. Not only would Gourry never fit, but he would try to rush in forgetting that somebody would have to stay outside to stand guard in case... 

"Gourry, I'm going in. It _might_ be a trap, so don't come after me, no matter what you might hear. Just guard the tunnel and wait for the others." Zelgadiss didn't wait for a reply, since Gourry could (though he doubted that Gourry would) order him to stay and he didn't want to have to argue. Dousing the ball of light with a mental command, he started wiggling through the tunnel in the dark.

* * *

"Please...don't eat me..." Amelia held the remaining scraps of her clothes to herself as she sat close to the wall. She was bleeding from where the dog-creature's teeth had pierced her skin. She watched the dog-creature warily, to be ready for it to either let its guard down or attack her again. It only grinned, teeth glinting, and just continued to lie between herself and escape. "I'll stay here...just don't eat me..." 

"_Just_ stay here? You're not offering me more...?" it said, with a barking, mocking laugh. "How pitiful! Such a lovely maiden, being so unkind? I _have_ company. Though perhaps not the most... filling... company. 

"But I'm _**so** hungry_...and you look _so_ delicious." 

The dog-creature stood up and started stalking towards Amelia. Amelia scooted closer to the wall and even further away from it, scared by the look in its eyes and the twist in its grin. Blood dripped onto the floor from the bite just above her hip on the left, where the dog-creature had almost managed to take a bit of her flesh along with the cloth it had ripped away. 

"I think I'll make you last; you'll be such good company, while he's gone..." The dog-creature leapt at Amelia, and she twisted onto her hands and knees, to try to escape faster. A weight hit her back, knocking her flat, and she felt the unnatural cold of the dog-creature's fangs nip the back of her neck gently. The dog-creature's cold breath caressed the back of her neck. He murmured quietly, "Don't struggle, or I'll break your neck. Cooperate and I might let you live..." Not waiting for her reaction, the dog-creature resumed the gentle pressure of its fangs on the back of Amelia's neck.

* * *

"There's so few pretty maidens around to waste them." The man's foot flashed upwards and outwards, hitting the wolf-headed man in the stomach and forcing him back. "Sorry miss," he said, grinning at Filia. "I'm afraid that there's going to have to be a bit of a fight." 

Filia blushed slightly. He was handsome, and he had such a nice English accent, though she couldn't quite place it. He also had been, aside from coming in through the window when the door was _still_ unlocked and even hanging a bit open, a gentleman. Her blush darkened as she realized that she, an engaged woman, was actually thinking about flirting with him, even while there was still a monster in her kitchen. 

Meanwhile, the wolf-headed man staggered back towards them from the remains of the kitchen table, ignoring Val who started edging along the wall towards Filia and the newcomer. The purple-haired man ignored the wolf-headed man, though, instead watching Filia. Suddenly, the wolf-headed man leaped towards them, and the man moved his hand in a way that looked impossible to Filia. He was suddenly holding a wooden staff with one end pointed and the other end holding a large red stone. 

Nearly half of the staff stuck out of the back of the wolf-headed man, dripping red-black blood. The man smirked slightly, his amethyst eyes open, and twisted his staff. With a scream from the wolf-headed man, the staff came out. He shifted position, holding his staff ready as the wolf-headed man staggered back, down, and then up again. 

"Oh _my_. You _still_ want to fight...?" The man grinned, moving his staff up into guard position. "You should have stayed down. You _might_ have survived, if you had." 

The wolf-headed man only growled and attacked, once again getting impaled.

* * *

Lina ran, cutting through the fields and muttering curses under her breath. Her day had not been at all good. It was wet and dark, and when there had been light it had been rather foggy. _**Then**_ she had been ordered to go take care of some moldy old local idols who had been sealed up in some hill which had opened up _again_. 

It was not much comfort for Lina that they at least had known that the hill had opened because the people who had last closed it up had felt it inevitable that it would open again and had set up an alarm. Back in America, which was much more civilized when it came to such things, such things simply didn't happen. There, such dangerous things were not _just_ sealed up to be almost completely forgotten! Well, aside from some of the ones that had been sealed up by the Indians, but _those_ hardly counted. 

Worst of all, of course, was the fact that they were under orders _not_ to fly. But that hadn't bothered Xelloss; he had just teleported ahead of the wolf-headed man as soon as they realized that he was going in a straight line, leaving Lina to run after through wet, muddy fields. 

_I'm going to miss all the fun_, Lina thought as she ran.

* * *

Zelgadiss's eyes widened as he finally reached the end of the tunnel and saw the jet-black dog-creature on top of a small young lady, whose clothes were torn beyond repair and whose body was bruised and bleeding. He paused for a few seconds, not sure if he should try attacking the dog-creature on top of the girl since its teeth were planted on the back of her neck. He was struck by the fear that the girl might already be dying... Had he taken too long? 

The dog-creature shifted its grip on the girl's neck, leaving gouges on her flesh. She whimpered, turning her face towards the tunnel, her eyes closed tightly and her bottom lip bleeding from where she had bitten into it. Zelgadiss had already cautiously pulled himself halfway out of the tunnel when he had seen them, but now that he knew that the girl wasn't yet injured too badly he quickly pulled himself the rest of the way out. He crouched there for a few seconds, thinking. His first impulse was to tackle the monster, but he didn't want to risk the girl's life. Zelgadiss decided, though, that he didn't know any spells that would be certain to have better results. 

He launched himself at the thing, knocking the creature off of the girl just in time to save her, only to land heavily on the girl himself, knocking her out. He rolled off of her, wincing as he felt her bones shift underneath her in a manner he knew they weren't supposed to and seeing the bloody wound on the back of her neck. He hadn't wanted to hurt _her_ more, she was just an innocent (and rather pretty) girl... 

He took a deep breath, calming himself. She was still breathing, and the creature that had been on top of her was now quite angry. Their briefing, while light on information, had been clear about how powerful these creatures were. Zelgadiss held no illusions of beating either by himself when he had a civilian to protect. These were both quite powerful spirits, and this one looked clever. 

Carefully, Zelgadiss lifted the girl up, praying that he wouldn't kill her by moving her. He glanced at the dog-creature. It was currently shaking one of its rear legs which had been broken when Zelgadiss had tackled it. It didn't seem particularly _bothered_ by its broken leg, aside from the leg having ended up with an extra bend in the wrong place. Zelgadiss pulled the girl as close to his own body as he could and ran as fast as he safely could, with somebody in his arms, towards the tunnel. 

Glancing back, Zelgadiss saw the dog-creature shake its broken leg one last time, finally getting the bone's ends to slide into place. "I wasn't expecting something like _this_," the thing said, and it laughed, a sharp barking laugh. "So much _**fun**_..." 

Zelgadiss shifted how he was holding the girl in his arms, to protect her better. 

The creature moved into a crouch, grinning. "Getting to kill some fool who tries to save _my_ maiden, drinking his blood and eating his flesh while she watches..." Its eyes flicked down from Zel's face and to the girl. "Hh, already out? Ah, well... Your bones will work as well." 

Zelgadiss blinked and then chuckled, low in his throat. "You must have gone senile, after so long trapped in here," he said, finally seeing a way out, "or perhaps blind? I'm not human, and my skin's stone; you can't pierce it." _At least, not without using your magic..._

The dog-creature growled and leapt at Zelgadiss, teeth bared. Zel turned and crouched, shoving the girl ahead of him into the tunnel with a muttered apology. As he did this, the thing crashed into the wall above him and fell straight down, right onto Zel's back. 

Zelgadiss cursed under his breath and shoved the girl further into the tunnel. He then quickly drew his body upwards and back, while turning to face the creature. The dog-creature leaped away, barely avoiding the Fireball Zelgadiss flung after it. By the time the creature realized that the Fireball was a feint, Zel was already crawling through the tunnel, pushing the girl ahead of himself.

* * *

Gourry looked curiously at the tunnel's opening. There had been a good bit of noise. Now, it sounded distinctly like somebody was getting pushed through. He pulled an empty hilt out from inside his shirt, and, holding it like it had a blade, got ready to fight. 

He blinked when what emerged from the tunnel was a young woman's very dirty head. He watched carefully as the rest of her followed, bloody, dirty, and dressed only in rags. Finally her feet emerged, and Gourry saw a pair of blue hands. 

"Hey, Zel, who's the girl?"

* * *

Filia tried to decide if she should be bored or not. The fight between the two men had dragged on. The wolf-headed man jumped at the other only to get impaled on the staff, only to get back up again to repeat the entire process. Her kitchen was almost completely destroyed; somehow only her tea set, kettle, and a vase remained unbroken. 

The wolf-headed man staggered back again, into the vase. It and he crashed to the floor...and stayed there. The man blinked, and then carefully poked the wolf-headed man with his staff. "Are you dead yet?" 

As the wolf-headed man persisted in lying on the floor silently, the man decided that his opponent was deceased. He walked over to the remains one of the cabinets and, with the tip of his staff moved some of the rubble away to reveal Val. "It's safe now, little boy. The mean old monster's dead, and your mother will make us all tea..." he said with a smile. 

Filia twitched. _**Mother**?!? He thinks I'm old enough to be Val's **mother**?!?_

Val shook his head. "Miss Copt isn't my mother..." 

"Oh? Is she your sister, then?" Filia's twitch paused, indecisive about _this_ being an insult or not. As Val shook his head 'no' again, it decided to wait to see the man's response to Val this time. 

"She's a very nice pretty lady who has taken you in?" 

Val nodded vigorously, and Filia's twitch died of shock. Maybe this man wasn't as rude as he had seemed to be... 

He looked at her, smiling. "Ma'am, would you please make some tea?" 

Filia blinked as the request was absorbed by her mind... "Oh, um, let me see if the stove's still working," she said with a faint blush. He was rather nice, after all! 

The kitchen door banged open, and a short redhead entered and looked around quickly. "Damn it, Xelloss, did you _have_ to wreck her kitchen?" she said, sounding much calmer than she looked. "I'm sorry, Ms. Copt. We'll arrange for the repairs to be done as soon as possible, and pay for them." 

Xelloss was now staring at Filia, rather rudely. "Wait, you mean _she's_ the 'ugly Nazi bitch' the villagers were talking about?" There was a short pause, during which Xelloss's face _quite_ clearly said 'Damn.' Then Filia started yelling. 

"I am _not_ an 'ugly Nazi bitch'! Nor am I a 'German slut,' 'Hamburg harlot,' 'fascist whore,' and whatever _else_ those villagers keep calling me! My English father -- who _was_ married to my mother quite a while _**before**_ I was born, I should add -- brought me back to England a few years ago, because he didn't support the Nazis, and neither do I! I'm now a proper _English_woman! I'm even _engaged_ to a British soldier!" 

Xelloss opened his mouth to say something, but the new arrival placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "I'm sorry, ma'am, for Xelloss's behavior just now. Normally he's _much_ more polite." She looked meaningfully at him, and he had the decency to look embarrassed. "We'll take your attacker, _now_, and let the two of you go to bed. It _is_ late..." She let go of Xelloss's shoulder, and he walked over to where the remains of the wolf-headed man lay. Xelloss slung the corpse over his shoulder with unnatural ease, and the two quietly left. 

Filia looked around the ruins of her kitchen and sighed. The light had started flickering as the kitchen door had swung shut, and Val was looking at it nervously. _I guess Val can sleep in my bed with me tonight_, Filia thought, _that way he might get some sleep tonight, and I don't want to wait any longer for Amelia to come back with his torch..._

She picked Val up, and opened the door to the small hallway that her bedroom was on, only a few feet away. She reached for the kitchen light switch just in time for the light to flicker out. She flipped the switch anyway, and carried Val, who was now clinging to her, off to bed.

* * *

Filia sat back in her _new_ kitchen chair and sighed. It had only been three days since her kitchen had been trashed, and yet it already looked as good as new. She hadn't even been able to thank the repairmen for being so prompt; they had come during the night, and left during the night while she was asleep in her bed, cuddling Val because he was afraid to sleep in his own bed. 

They had finished the job the night before, and had even put Val's torch -- complete with fresh batteries and a new bulb -- and a vase with a daisy on the kitchen table for them to find in the morning. 

Filia had found out, the morning after the incident, that Amelia was in the nearby army base's hospital. After being made to wait a day to see her, Filia had to wonder why she had to wait. Amelia looked fine, except for a few bandaged scrapes. Amelia was every cheerful, too, and seemed particularly happy about the large bouquet that stood on the table beside her bed. When Filia asked who had sent her it, since flowers weren't easily come by, Amelia had handed her the plain white card that had come with the flowers. 

On it, in elegant hand-written script, was only three words: "I am sorry." 

There was a knock at the kitchen door. Filia got up and opened it. A messenger boy handed a telegram to her, and swiftly left. 

Filia sat down again, and opened it. On black-rimmed paper was a simple message. Her fiancé, Arthur Blackwell, had died three nights ago when a building collapsed on him. He had been helping get children out of an orphanage that had been accidentally bombed, and it had taken them two days to dig his body out. 

Filia put the telegram down on the kitchen table, and wondered why she didn't feel anything.

* * *

§ The terms 'jo' and 'ge' are from Japanese, and mean respectively, 'up' and 'down.' In this context, they mean 'top' or 'first half' and 'bottom' or 'second half.' I've chosen to use them, as well as give this the subtitle of 'Cold Haily Rainy Night,' because I've decided to make this an episodic series, with each 'episode' being two or three chapters long. 

That doesn't necessarily mean I will be writing more, as I do have a few ideas set in this 'world' that I'd like to write sometime. This way, I can easily continue this whenever I want, but I'm not obligated to do so. 

§ This story is in no way formatted properly, thanks Xing & his lovely chrome-covered 'QuickEdit' stripping out everything inside center tags and all non-blanking spaces.


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